The signature Motown guitar tone

[slauson slim]

Guitars went into purpose built DI and compression.

Motown engineer explains equipment and techniques.

http://www.collinsaudio.com/Prosound_Workshop/Motown1.pdf

http://www.collinsaudio.com/Prosound_Workshop/Motown2.pdf

 

[Willie Johnson]

I always thought "that" rhythm guitar sound was a short-scale Fender like a Mustang or a Jaguar in the middle pickup switch position, but it seems like that's not the case. Maybe I think that from seeing videos like "Good Thing" by Fine Young Cannibals.

 

[BroGreg]

 

[KokoTele]

Don't forget James Jameson....

I don't think we did forget Jamerson on this thread from almost 15 years ago, but he wasn't a guitar player ;-)

 

[Pcs264]

the snake pit...

the guitars and bass went straight into the board... no amplifiers were used at motown... the three guitar parts of joe messina, robert white and eddie willis were pre-mixed onto one track through a pre-amp and directly injected from there... james jamerson's bass went straight into the 8 track board... even dennis coffey rarely got to use an amp for his wild guitar parts when he joined the funk brothers during the psychedelic era... most motown recordings feature at least three guitar players excluding bass... tj

There are plenty of Motown studio pics showing James Jamerson playing through an Ampeg Portaflex. But now that you mention it, I don't recall seeing guitar amps...

 

[Joe M]

This 15 year old zombie was resurrected with a totally off-topic post.
CLOSED